Renata M. Wentzcovitch is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, with appointments in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Her research focuses on computational quantum mechanical studies of materials under extreme conditions, particularly those relevant to planetary interiors.

Dr. Wentzcovitch develops and applies advanced simulation methods to investigate the electronic, structural, and vibrational properties of materials at high pressures and temperatures. Her work bridges materials science and geophysics, with applications in mineral physics, seismology, geodynamics, and geochemistry. She is particularly interested in topics such as thermoelasticity of minerals, H₂O-ice physics, strongly correlated oxides, spin crossover systems, and the automation of high-throughput simulations for planetary materials discovery.

Before joining Columbia Engineering in 2017, she was a Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she also served as Director of Graduate Studies in the Scientific Computation Program. Dr. Wentzcovitch has held visiting appointments at several international institutions, including SISSA in Trieste, Tokyo Institute of Technology, the University of Frankfurt, and the Flatiron Institute.

She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and several other scientific societies. She currently serves in the presidential line of the Mineral and Rock Physics Section of the American Geophysical Union.

Contact: rmw2150@columbia.edu